Today's population is multicultural, and multilingual. To respond to such a diverse population, technology suppliers have recognized the need for a computing device that enables users to communicate with the computing device in their own language. To this end, numerous computing devices enable the user to enter non-English language characters, such as Far East language characters. Many of these computing devices employ what is known as an input method editor (IME).
An IME, also known as a front-end processor, typically includes an applet that allows a user to enter the different characters used in Far East languages, and the like, with a standard 101-key keyboard. An IME may convert keystrokes into phonetic and ideographic characters. As the user enters a keystroke, the IME attempts to guess into which ideographic character or characters the keystrokes should be converted.
However, for the Far East languages it may require several keystrokes to produce one character. This makes traditional IMEs complex and slow to use. Moreover, many of today's IMEs require the full range of keystrokes available through the 101-key keyboard. This often makes traditional IMEs impractical for mobile computing devices such as smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and the like. Moreover, because of these limitations, and others, traditional IMEs are unsuitable for quickly searching a database, contact list, and the like, that includes an entry associated with a Far East language character. Therefore, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.